It's widely known that IBM is a patent machine and is happy to license its intellectual property. While it's unclear how many wireless patents IBM has---we're told a lot. IBM may not be able to cure Google's patent woes, but it can certainly be like a pharmacy and dispense a few deals to ease the lawsuit pain.

Simply put, IBM has just enough patents to give Google some ammunition to fend off lawsuits. With the Nortel patent deal falling apart for Google, the search giant needs a few patent pals. IBM is that pal.

With IBM, Google can buy enough patents to put the lawsuit genie back in the bottle---at least somewhat.